In the late 1840s, an agricultural and whaling community set up in Erebus Cove, on the harbour, and named Hardwicke. Due to the inhospitable climate, the settlement was abandoned within three years. A cemetery remains, later used to bury victims of shipwrecks. Survivors of the 1866 wreck of the General Grant set up a camp in the harbour, where they lived for 18 months before rescue. Later, castaway depots were established in Port Ross to provide succour for any sailors wrecked or marooned on the islands. In 1887 it provided relief for the survivors of the Derry Castle. It was also one of three sites occupied by the wartimeCape Expeditioncoastwatching stations established on New Zealand's subantarctic islands.